Breathing Healing

In the morning it is my practice, whatever the weather, to do the Sufi healing breaths outside among the cedars. I stand facing the direction which for me corresponds to each element. I start facing north and the magic begins.


When I breathe in the earth, I feel what is solid within. Sometimes I am a skeleton, standing rooted in the earth. I take in the tall trees and the mountains and feel their strength moving down through me. In my mind's eye, I journey to another place where I am also at home. Here feilds stretch out from wooden fences and quietness reigns. I return at peace with the land.

Facing west I honor water; breathing in the moisture of all that is green. On the outbreath my back and shoulder muscles relax. They melt into the flow of the river and I become that river. My body welcomes rain falling. The cells absorb it. Washing me clean, it continues downward to nurture the soil.

Breathing fire and allowing it to transform to light, is for me the most difficult. It is hard to find warmth on a cloudy mid winter day. But I feel my heart beat pulsing through my body. Then energy quickens with passion. It rises upwards and light radiates out.

With air I discover lightness. It enters my body through all the skin pores and it fills my lungs. Sometimes the lightness draws me up and above the landscape, always east toward the river, which runs below the mountain. Flying back over houses, farms and woods, I stand in my trees again, feeling lightened and ready for the day.

These breaths are my sustenance, preparing me in part for whatever shall come; enabling me to stand my ground connected to the natural world and to who I am.

Radha